~ An Aussie look at Financial markets-Been in the Biz for over 30 years!

Friday 9th September – Australian Market Wrap

ASX 200 collapsed again, down 47 points to 5339 as the Draghi disappointment brought back the bears. Banks were the biggest losers with materials and energy positive. Four straight weeks of losses now. Asian markets flat lining with Japan up 0.04% China down 0.017%. AUD back to 76.41 and US futures down 8points.

For the week we have fallen from 5372 to 5339 for a loss of around 0.6%. Since Friday 12th August the ASX has quietly dropped from 5531 to 5339 a fall of 3.4%

STOCKS AND SECTORS

Banks sloppy today after Draghi had nothing up his sleeve to appease markets and the risks for euro trash banks increases. Westpac Bank (WBC) -1.63% the stand out faller. The big bank basket was trading around $154.50 falling from $156.87.

Resources one of the only bright spots. Whitehaven (WHC) +8.65% bounced hard with Orica (ORI) +2.08% also in demand with the usual iron ore suspects firmer, FortescueMetals (FMG) +1.23%

Energy stocks had a very good bounce with the exception of Santos (STO) -1.96% on balance sheet concerns. Origin Energy (ORG) +5.46% led the sector higher followed by OilSearch (OSH) +3.84% Beach Petroleum (BPT) +3.74%.

Industrials were a nasty shade of red across the board with eth healthcare sector coming under pressure again. CSL -2.25% will test $100 next week with falls in Cochlear (COH) -1.59% SonicHealthcare (SHL) -2.94% and Sirtex (SRX) -2.70%. The star performer was SigmaPharma (SIP) +9.34% after the good results yesterday

Tech and telco land was weaker as Telstra (TLS) -0.98% continue to slide towards a $500 breach. TPGTelecomm (TPM) -2.06% and VocusComm (VOC) -2.29% followed in its wake.

Speculative stock of the day: Coal stocks are back in fashion and today TigerRealmCoal (TIG) +36.00% released its results. The company has a coking coal project in the far east of Russia and is currently raising $23m through a rights issue to push the coal strategy.

CORPORATE NEWS

Origin Energy (ORG) +5.46% announced that the long term CEO Grant King would be retiring and CFO Frank Calabria will take over the reins. King has been at the helm for 14 years since Origin first came into being.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Housingfinance numbers came in below expectations in July, driven by falls in owner-occupier approvals, while investor approvals ticked slightly higher. The number of home loans approved fell 4.2% in July, missing market expectations of a 1.5% fall, while the value of total housing finance was down 1.8% in the month.

Housing loans to investors totalled $11.8bn in July, their highest monthly level in almost a year.

In China: The CPI hit its weakest level in almost a year in August, pulled down by falling food costs. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.3% in August from a year earlier, compared with a 1.8% increase in July. That was the slowest pace of inflation since October 2015. Analysts had expected a 1.7% gain.

Zinc is this year’s best performing commodity, climbing more than 43%, coal is not far off with Australian coal up 40%. The Bloombergcommodity index rose 7.3% in that time.

Taiwanese shares declined the most in two months as suppliers to Apple fell in the wake of the new iPhone launch. The Taiex index slid 1.06% to 9,156.46 paring this week’s advance to 2 percent.

EUROPE AND THE US

WellsFargo has been slapped with a US$185m fine to settle claims that employees opened accounts without customer approval and earn bonuses. 2m false accounts were opened and over 5300 employees have been sacked over the scandal.

It seems that SuperMario has run out of options now urging governments to act to get the EU economy back on track and this is before the Brexit The ECB has downgraded its growth forecast for the next two years, citing the uncertainties of Brexit, and admitted that it has little chance of meeting its 2% inflation target this decade

A former Swiss president has suggested that the UK should work with Switzerland to forge a good relationship with Europe and adopting a rigid approach to free movement is not helpful.

And finally……………..

Ronnie Corbett: “Do you think marriage is a lottery?”
Ronnie Barker: “No. With a lottery you do have a slight chance.”

”I said to the Gym instructor “Can you teach me to do the splits?” He said, ”How flexible are you?” I said, ”I can’t make Tuesdays”

I met a Dutch girl with inflatable shoes last week, phoned her up to arrange a date but unfortunately she’d popped her clogs.

Clarence

XXX

Just as an aside Clarence will be heading off to Europe next week on Wednesday to sample the delights of Italy and UK. Normal service will resume when he returns. In the meantime stay safe and stay cosy!